Health News: High-Fiber Diet Halts Prostate Cancer Progression

March 1st, 2013

A high-fiber diet may have the clinical potential to control the progression of prostate cancer in patients diagnosed in early stages of the disease.

The rate of prostate cancer occurrence in Asian cultures is similar to the rate in Western cultures, but in the West, prostate cancer tends to progress, whereas in Asian cultures it does not. Why? A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in CancerPrevention Research shows that the answer may be a high-fiber diet.

The study compared mice fed with inositol hexaphosphate (IP6), a major component of high-fiber diets, to control mice that were not. Then the study used MRI to monitor the progression of prostate cancer in these models. Feeding with IP6 kept prostate tumors from making the new blood vessels they needed to supply themselves with energy. Without this energy, the prostate cancer couldn’t grow. Likewise, treatment with IP6 slowed the rate at which prostate cancers metabolized glucose.